Authors: Dirk Patton
What now? Rachel didn’t like the idea of hiking down the
pavement with the group of kids. They would be way too visible and too easy to
surprise. Looking around, Rachel didn’t care for the possibility of staying in
the trees, either. The underbrush along the road was thick with all kinds of
vines and bushes, and without a beaten path like they’d just followed it would
be next to impossible for them to move through the woods. Not for the first
time she wished John was here to make the decision. He’d know what to do.
Rachel’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a suppressed rifle firing in
the woods. Turning in the direction of the group she raised her rifle and
dashed onto the path.
Betty and the kids were bunched up as close to the mouth of
the path as they could get without actually spilling out onto the turn out.
Rachel pushed past them and saw Nora aiming John’s rifle back down the path.
She looked in the direction the girl was aiming and saw a dead infected male
lying in the dirt. Movement caught her eye and she looked back down the path in
time to see Nora shoot another infected as he stumbled around a bend and
started towards them. Momentarily filled with pride that a girl had stepped up
and was defending them, Rachel snapped herself back to the situation at hand. No
time for feminism. Those days were over, and as much as she didn’t like it she
knew that once again most women would need a big, strong man to survive. Nora
just might be one of the exceptions to that rule.
No more infected appeared and after a few minutes Nora
lowered the rifle but kept her attention focused on the forest. Rachel pulled
a full magazine out of her vest and handed it to the girl who jammed it into
the back pocket of her skin tight jeans. Moving back past the group to the
edge of the trees Rachel stopped next to Betty and explained the situation to
her. Betty listened carefully, nodding as Rachel spoke.
“I think I know where he might be,” Betty said. “There was
some religious nut that called himself The Preacher, or something dramatic like
that, that set up shop on some state owned land a few miles from here. Last I
heard he had about fifty followers and they lived in a bunch of tents back in
the woods. I don’t know of anyone else around these parts that would have any
interest in taking someone. Everyone else would hunker down and ignore what
was going on, or they’d be the kind of people that’d invite you into their home
and share their dinner with you.”
“Do you know where this camp is?” Rachel asked, a thrill of
hope running through her. For the first time she thought she might actually
find John.
“Honey, this guy and his followers are bat shit crazy, if
you’ll pardon the expression. Well, they were before the world turned upside
down. Now, I can’t even imagine.”
Betty was frightening her, but at the same time Rachel
wasn’t about to abandon John.
Two hours later the afternoon was wearing on and they were
still sitting just inside the trees at the dirt turn out. Rachel had always
been a confident woman, but the one area she was weak was in making a decision.
She knew this about herself and had worked on it all her adult life, but all
too often she tended towards inaction as a way to avoid making a decision that
could potentially be the wrong one. She was sitting in the dirt, Dog at her
feet and Betty sitting beside her. Nora was still watching the rear and every
time Rachel checked she was alert and ready to defend them if any threat
appeared. Rachel was really starting to like this young woman.
“There’s not been a car the whole time we’ve been here.”
Betty observed.
“You think it’s ok to head down the road?” Rachel asked,
hoping for Betty to make the decision for her.
“I don’t know, honey. But we can’t keep sitting here.
Eventually someone or something is going to find us. I’m not sure which would
be worse at this point, but we need to start moving soon before it gets dark.”
Rachel thought about that and slowly nodded her head. She
asked herself, for the hundredth time, what John would do if he was here. Actually,
she knew they’d already have been down the road and found the camp, but the
voice of doubt kept plaguing her thoughts. Finally Rachel got mad. She got
mad at the Chinese for having attacked America and starting this. She got mad
at John for running around the forest like Rambo and getting himself captured.
She got mad at the people that had captured him, but mostly she got mad at
herself for sitting in the trees like a frightened lamb. She had stayed with
John since the day of the attacks and had fought by his side, saving him at
least as many times as he had saved her. What the hell was she doing sitting
here and wasting time? Had she already waited too long to save him?
“Let’s move,” Rachel said to Betty, bouncing to her feet.
She extended her hand and helped Betty off the ground then turned and got the
kids up and ready to move with a few terse commands.
Sensing the tension that comes before action, Dog was on his
feet with his tail held stiffly at alert. He was ready. A minute later the
group emerged from the trees and headed west on the pavement. They hugged the
shoulder and Rachel had cautioned each kid to be ready to dive into the brush
if they heard a vehicle approaching. Walking in single file, Rachel and Dog
led the way with Nora bringing up the rear.
Now that Rachel had made a decision her adrenaline was
pumping and she moved with long, fast strides. She started outdistancing the
group as Betty couldn’t move as fast so she had to reign herself in. She knew
she should conserve her energy as much as possible for the impending fight so
she forced herself to slow down. Dog wasn’t so pragmatic and kept trotting a
few yards ahead before turning and trotting back to Rachel, then repeating
himself. He was primed for a fight.
They started passing the impaled heads that lined the road,
Betty and the kids staring at them in horror, and close to 45 minutes later
they reached the site of the ambush that had put her and John on foot. The
road was littered with spent shell casings, brass glittering in the late
afternoon sunlight, and their Humvee along with several civilian vehicles had
been pushed off the road into a drainage ditch. As they walked past the Humvee
Rachel glanced over at the machine gun and was amazed to see the barrel was now
curved downwards. Not a lot, but enough to be noticeable and also to render
the weapon useless she imagined. Remembering what John had told her about
melting the barrel she was still amazed it had actually happened. Part of her
had thought he was being dramatic even though she believed he knew what he was
talking about.
200 yards beyond the far edge of the ambush they discovered
a muddy track that cut off the asphalt and disappeared into the forest over a
rise. The track appeared to be well traveled as it was churned up from the
passage of aggressive off-road tires, and all the disturbances appeared to be
fresh. Turning onto the path Rachel slowed her pace and whispered to Betty to
remind the kids to stay absolutely quiet. Walking down the path they crested
the rise and kept going as it wound its way through the trees and underbrush.
Rachel didn’t see anyone, but it wasn’t long before she started smelling meat cooking
and her stomach gave an involuntary rumble. Coming to a stop she waved the
group off the path into the trees and melded into the forest with them.
They moved a few dozen yards away from the track and came
across a narrow game trail cutting through the forest in the same direction as
the path. Stepping onto it Rachel led the group at a decent pace for another
ten minutes until the game path took a sharp bend to the right. This was
opposite the direction they needed to travel to stay with the track and Rachel
abandoned the trail and pushed back into the woods in the direction the smell
of the cooking fires was coming from. Dog easily moved through the heavy
underbrush, but Rachel had to slow as she pushed through, careful to not make
any more noise than absolutely necessary.
Finally the brush thinned and they reached the edge of the
trees. In front of them was a large clearing, at least two acres, and much of
it was occupied with camping tents. Directly in front of them was the track
that led from the road which ended to the right in a large area where dozens of
all different types of vehicles were haphazardly parked. At the far edge of
the camp Rachel could see several larger tents that looked like they were
probably military surplus and had once been command tents. Set amongst them a
large cross towered over the camp. People were moving everywhere in the camp.
Normal looking people, going about their business. Cooking food. Fetching
buckets of water from the small creek that ran along the edge of the camp.
Children playing. Children. Rachel’s resolve weakened at the thought that
children might get hurt during John’s rescue.
“Oh my God!” Rachel turned and saw Nora looking at the camp
through the rifle scope. “Oh my God!” She repeated, eye glued to whatever she
was seeing.
“What?” Rachel and Betty asked at the same time, staring at
the young girl.
“Look at the cross,” she answered, her voice shaky.
Rachel raised her rifle, but the scope she had did not have
any magnification, only a red dot for aiming. She called the boy over that was
carrying John’s pack and dug through it until she found a pair of binoculars.
Raising them to her eyes it took her a moment to find the cross, then another
moment to focus the glasses. When they came into focus she said exactly what
Nora was still repeating. She had found John and he had been nailed to a cross
that was standing amongst a small forest of impaled heads. She was unable to
tell if he was still alive. Several emotions blasted through Rachel at that
moment, everything from disgust to pity to rage. Rage won out. The kind of
rage that made her want to wipe out every living soul in the camp. She now
understood how John could do the things he did and still sleep at night.
The sun was low on the horizon and soon they would have the
cover of darkness to move around. Rachel didn’t know yet how she was going to
rescue John, but she was working on it. Her biggest fear at the moment was
that he was too severely injured to be able to move and they would have to
carry him. She knew from experience just how big he was and knew there wasn’t
anyone in the group that could carry him. Maybe four of the kids working
together, but they would need to be able to move fast. This thought coincided
with her looking at the parking area as she scanned the camp with the
binoculars. Parked off to the side of the area was a short bus, painted white
with hand lettering along the side that read Primitive Baptist Church.
“Betty, you said you were a bus driver. Right?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Do you know how to hot wire one if the keys aren’t
available?” Rachel answered the question with a question.
“I don’t, no. But young Mr. Hillman over there had a bit of
trouble with the police this past spring and I expect he can.” Rachel lowered
the binoculars and looked at the kid Betty was pointing at. The boy was
scrawny and had kept to himself as much as possible since Rachel had joined the
group, but she had caught him stealing longing glances at Nora who studiously
ignored him. He maintained a perpetual scowl on his face and was glaring back
at them, knowing he was being talked about but unaware of what the conversation
was. Rachel stood up, staying in a crouch, and moved over to squat in the dirt
next to him.
“Hi,” she said. “What’s your name?”
“Jared Hillman.” He answered. “What do you want?” The
anger and attitude the boy carried with him was evident in his tone and in his
expression.
“We need your help. Do you know how to hot wire a bus?”
Rachel stared at his eyes and saw the look of surprise cross his face before he
shut it down in favor of the scowl.
“I can start anything with a motor,” he said, sitting up
straighter and puffing out his chest.
“Good!” Rachel beamed and put her hand on his shoulder.
“I’m going to need you soon. Don’t go anywhere.” The kid smiled for the first
time and nodded his head. Working through more of the plan in her head Rachel
went back to sit next to Betty and lifted the binoculars back to her eyes.
After seeing what she needed to see she motioned the Hillman kid over to her.
“Alright, Jared. You and I are going to sneak through the
brush and into that parking lot. See that white bus off to the side?” Rachel
asked, pointing and handing the binoculars to the kid. When he nodded she
continued. “I’m going to get you into that bus, but I don’t want you to do
anything other than hide for now. Sometime later you’ll hear gunfire, and
that’s when I want you to get it started and have it ready to go. Can you do
that?”
“Damn straight!” He answered, cracking a smile and glancing
around to see if Nora had noticed that his help was needed.
“Is there anything you need to break in or get it started?”
The kid reached into his pocket and pulled out a multi-tool
that had everything from a knife blade to pliers to a screwdriver. “Got all I
need right here.”
“Good. Let’s go.” Rachel patted Dog on the head, telling
him to stay and set off through the brush with the kid close behind her. It
didn’t take them long to reach the edge of the parking area and they worked
their way across by moving from vehicle to vehicle. The bus was parked at the
edge of the lot closest to the camp and there was a good 40 yards of open space
between it and the closest vehicle. Pausing, Rachel looked at the open ground
and at the movement in the camp just on the other side of the bus.
“What’s wrong?” The kid asked.
“I don’t know how were going to sneak into the bus without
anyone seeing us.” Rachel answered, doubt creeping into her mind over the
decision to hide the kid in the bus.
“I’ll just walk over,” he said. “The trick is to look like
you belong and know what you’re doing.” Before Rachel could say anything Jared
stood fully erect and started strolling across the dirt lot to the bus. He
moved slowly and casually, head down and feet dragging with each step, just
like you’d expect a sullen teenager to move. Several of the people moving
around in the camp glanced his way but ignored him and went on about their
business.
Mouth hanging open in surprise, Rachel watched as he walked
right up to the bus like he had all the reason in the world to be there. The
multi-tool was already in his hand and in less than 15 seconds he had jimmied
the door lock. Climbing into the bus he pulled the doors closed behind him,
moved towards the back of the bus and waved at Rachel through one of the side
windows before disappearing from view. Rachel stared in surprise for a few
moments before she smiled and started making her way back across the lot to the
edge of the brush where the group waited, but paused when a thought struck her.
Even if they did get John away from the camp, made it into the bus and drove
off what would keep the people in the camp from pursuing them.
Looking around the lot with an evil smile Rachel kneeled
down and pulled her T-Shirt over her head and started tearing it into long
strips. With a handful of strips she moved through the parked vehicles and
randomly stuffed a strip of fabric into the gas tanks of more than a dozen of
the trucks. Task completed she worked her way back to the group, greeted by
the thumping of Dog’s tail and the appreciative stares of all the teenage
boys. Digging a spare shirt out of her pack she worked it over her head then
looked around the group and asked if anyone had a lighter. Two of the boys
quickly dug disposable butane lighters out of their pockets and held them out
towards Rachel. Taking both lighters she selected one of the boys, the one who
had blushed when she overhead his comment about her breasts earlier, and
brought him over to the edge of the brush. His job was to wait for explosions
and gunfire, then he would run through the parking area, setting fire to each
of the strips of fabric Rachel had placed in the fuel tanks on his way to the
bus where he would wait with Jared for the rest of the group. She had him
repeat her instructions and satisfied he understood she marshalled the swiftly
dwindling group and started off through the brush.
They spent the next 20 minutes moving around the perimeter
of the camp, getting closer to where John was nailed to the cross. Rachel
could picture how she wanted this to go, but her plan fell apart just as they
reached an area that was close to the cross. As they watched two men walked up
to the cross, removed a couple of bolts from the base and let it fall backwards
to the ground, John still attached. They then removed the nails from his hands
with a large hammer and cut the ropes that were binding him to the rough wood.
While this was going on people started assembling in a rough circle to his rear
and it looked like the entire camp was in attendance. Again, Rachel experienced
some doubt, but the rage she had felt earlier returned as she watched the two
men drag John inside the circle made by the people and hold him there while a
giant man started talking about God and how God had found John guilty.